1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an apparatus for releasing a shot from a firearm comprising a trigger for actuating said apparatus and a safety device capable of blocking said actuation of said apparatus, and further relates to ammunition and to a firearm usable with said ammunition.
2. Description of the Related Art
Worldwide attempts to tighten up the laws ruling the use of firearms impressively illuminate the immense potential of risk resulting from the use of firearms by non-authorized people. Heretofore known safety devices at firearms may at most decrease the risk that a user by an inadvertent actuation of the trigger of the firearm unintentionally fires the shot. They can, however, not prevent unauthorized people from actuating the firearm at any time. On the one hand firearms, like pistols, revolvers or rifles, when they get into the hands of children, are, a great source of risk. On the other hand, firearms are abused by criminals to threaten, wound or even kill other people. Not seldom it even happens that security personal is shot by their own firearm they have for office use but was taken into possession through peculiar circumstances by a criminal.
It is an object of the invention to provide an apparatus of the above referenced type which enables to protect the firearm against unauthorized use. It is a further object to propose ammunition which is suitable for this purpose and to propose a firearm suitable for use with this ammunition.
With regard to an apparatus for releasing a shot of the above referenced type this object is obtained in that said safety device is provided with, at said firearm, a source of electric energy and an electronic circuit energized by said source of electric energy, said electronic circuit comprising a transmitter for wirelessly transmitting an interrogation signal to a transponder provided separately from said firearm, a receiver for receiving a response signal wirelessly transmitted from said transponder in response to said interrogation signal, a device for examining information contained in said response signal, and a releasing device driven by said examining device and deblocking said actuation of said apparatus depending on the examination result.
According to the invention the firearm remains blocked against releasing a shot unless the user of the firearm has the transponder about himself which, after the actuation of the trigger of the firearm, in response to the interrogation signal transmitted from the circuit of the firearm retransmits the response signal which enables the releasing apparatus to be deblocked. Transponders suitable for this purpose are known. They have a receiver for the interrogation signal and a transmitter for the response signal and recover the necessary electric energy for their operation from the transmitted interrogation signal.
The electronic circuit and the source of electric energy will in the case of small arms be preferably arranged in the handle of the firearm. The source of electric energy will regularly be a battery. In this aspect other embodiments are also conceivable. For instance a transducer mechanically coupled to the trigger could be used as the source of electric energy, said transducer transforming the mechanical motion of the trigger when releasing a shot into electric energy.
As in the case of conventional mechanical safety devices the safety device in the present invention is also normally blocked. For this no electric energy is thus necessary. Consumption of electric energy will only occur when the trigger is actuated and the signal exchange between the firearm and the transponder causes a mechanical block pin blocking the safety device to be shifted into a release position thereof, for instance by means of a solenoid provided in the releasing device.
In a preferred embodiment it is provided that said electronic circuit of said firearm comprises a non-volatile memory having an identification code for said firearm stored therein, and said examination device comprises a comparator device for comparing said code stored in said non-volatile memory with the information contained in said response signal transmitted from said transponder. The code stored in the non-volatile memory individualizes the firearm. The latter one may therefore only be used by those being in position of a transponder whose response signal has a relationship to the stored code which is accepted by the comparator device to deblock the releasing device.
In relation to this it is a useful further development that said non-volatile memory has additionally stored therein a code representative of a firearm user license, said code being compared by said comparator device with the information contained in the response signal transmitted from said transponder. The code representing the firearm user license allows to individualize the persons being authorized to use the firearm in the manner of a license number. In this way a plurality of codes for a plurality of persons may be stored resulting in that this firearm may be used by a group of several persons. Nevertheless, each person has his own transponder which only transmits a response signal corresponding to the code which is valid for this very person. In this case, when the trigger is actuated, the comparator device cycles through all codes all representing the different user licenses until a valid code is found. Only, in the latter case the releasing apparatus is deblocked. Otherwise it remains blocked.
In this relation it is also of advantage that said non-volatile memory is exchangeable and said remaining parts of said electronic circuit are fixedly connected with said firearm. The non-volatile memory which individualizes the firearm is in this case for instance located on a substrate which is inserted into a corresponding recess in the magazine of the firearm. When sliding the magazine into the firearm the non-volatile memory is contacted with the circuit and thereby individualizes the firearm which is otherwise of the same construction as all the other firearms of the same type.
Within the scope of the invention it is further provided that said electronic circuit of said firearm comprises a real time clock, a non-volatile memory and a memory write unit, said memory write unit writing time and date of each actuation of the apparatus into said non-volatile memory. This constitution, while requiring a permanent supply of electric energy for the real time clock, permits to record all actuations of the firearm. This provides for an extremely effective means to examine each use of the firearm for criminalistic or other purposes. In order to prevent tempering of the time or date records, provisions have to be made that the supply of power for the real time clock can at least not unperceivedly be interrupted. For this purpose the electronic circuit may be provided with a function which permanently blocks the firearm in case of an interruption of the supply of power for the real time clock. Removal of this permanent block with practically feasible expense is then only possible through the manufacturer.
Preferably, the electronic circuit of the firearm will be in the form of a microchip as is known in the state of the art. The form of microchip is above all also advantageous for the transponder in a specific embodiment of the apparatus. In this embodiment of the apparatus the transponder is in the form of a chip and is integrally arranged with an item a user of the firearm has to have about oneself.
This object may have various forms which enable it to be unobtrusively worn at the body or also without any appreciable risk to be lost. The transponder chip may for instance be inserted into a flat substrate in the manner of a known chip card which the user wears in a pocket of his clothing. A particularly useful embodiment having the advantage of a small transmission distance between the transponder and the fire arm resides in that the object is a finger ring. Where this finger ring is worn at the shooting hand, an inductive transmission of the interrogation signal and the response signal is for instance sufficient due to the short distance.
The object of increasing the safety of a firearm is also promoted by the creation of ammunition comprising a cartridge-case, a bullet plugging said cartridge-case, a propelling charge arranged in said cartridge-case, and a firing device for said propelling charge provided at said cartridge-case, said ammunition being characterized in that said firing device comprises an electronic circuit having an electric contact arrangement adapted for contacting a complementarily formed contact arrangement of said firearm, when said ammunition is in a firing position, for supplying electric energy from said firearm and a transducer driven by said electronic circuit, said transducer transforming a pulse of electric ignition energy supplied from said circuit to said transducer in response to the supply of energy into a pulse of energy suitable for firing said propelling charge.
This type of ammunition cannot be used with hitherto known firearms since the firing device thereof in contrast to conventional detonators cannot be fired by the firing pins of conventional firearms. If only care will be taken that the future production of ammunition is completely changed over to the ammunition in accordance with the invention, all conventional small arms which are at a large degree disseminated without any control will after a short time become unusable. The ammunition in accordance with the invention requires the supply of electric ignition energy which is converted by the electronic circuit provided within the ammunition into a signal form suitable for driving the transducer which causes conversion into an energy pulse suitable for firing the propelling charge. Regularly this will be an electrothermical transducer supplying a sufficient amount of thermic energy to fire the propelling charge. Preferably, the transducer is a laser diode which due to its single use may be driven beyond a destructive power thereof.
An advantageous embodiment of the ammunition resides in that said electronic circuit of said firing device comprises a non-volatile memory having a code identifying the type of ammunition stored therein and being readable via said contact arrangement.
When the identification code is read out it may be used to control the admissibility of the ammunition for a certain firearm or also for a certain user.
For the use of the ammunition a firearm comprising an apparatus for releasing a shot, said apparatus having a contact arrangement formed complementarily to said electric contact arrangement of said ammunition and having a trigger, is embodied so that said releasing apparatus is provided with a source of electric energy and an electronic circuit energized by said source of electric energy, said electronic circuit supplying appropriate electric energy for firing said ammunition to said complementarily formed contact arrangement in response to an actuation of said trigger.
For exploiting the controllability provided by the code which identifies the type of ammunition the above embodiment of the firearm is further formed so that said electronic circuit of said firearm comprises a device for reading said identification code stored in the non-volatile memory of the electronic circuit of said ammunition and a device for examining said identification code, said examination device releasing or blocking said supply of energy depending on the result of the examination. In this way the firearm may for instance be prevented from being used with inappropriate ammunition which may for instance result in a dangerous expansion of the barrel.
An additional increase in controllability is attained in that said electronic circuit of said firearm comprises a non-volatile memory, said read out identification code of said ammunition being stored into said non-volatile memory. In this way it can be determined in later examinations what type of ammunition has been used with the firearm. The use of forbidden types of ammunition may in this way later be determined and thereby premature wear and resulting accidents may be uncovered.